Hi, I'm new to this forum. I have a 5 year old female black lab who is just the best dog in the entire world. She's also a rescue dog and has a really rough past and as such doesn't like to be alone. We take her everywhere when we leave town because she can't handle kennels, they make her shut down until you get her out of there. My husband and I are going to visit his family the week after Christmas in Pennsylvania and she is coming with us. The downside is that his family is severely allergic to dogs so she's going to need to stay in the garage/basement. I'm worried she'll shut down being separated from the family; we'll be spending the nights downstairs with her and will of course see her every few hours to take her for walks but is it ok to keep a dog that is accustomed to always being around us separate for a few days? My husband thinks she'll be ok but I've seen how bad she gets when she's in a new place and is left alone for even a few minutes. She just gets so depressed and sad, they can't even take her to the back lab at the vet without her just giving up and thinking she's been abandoned. I just don't want to break her heart.
Hi and welcome to the forum. It's impossible to say how she will react at this point, but I really think you need to start work right now on leaving her alone if that's what you're going to be doing. Start with just a few seconds at a time, and slowly build it up. Don't make a big fuss of her when you return to her. That will at least give you some idea of how she will react, but a dog with severe separation anxiety really needs to not be left alone at all until the work has been done to turn that around. Do you leave her at all? Like when you go grocery shopping? A brilliant book about separation anxiety and how to treat it is "Treating Separation Anxiety In Dogs" by Malena DeMartini-Price https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JV9ZSJ4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Another temporary option while you work on separation anxiety is to bring a dog/house sitter into your home where’s she’s comfortable and leave her home with them while you are away.
Do you have to go? I personally wouldn't go. I'd let my husband go and I'd stay at home with the dog x
I agree with @JenBainbridge, I wouldn't go, though is there a possibility you could leave her in the car during the day, or too hot/cold? Some dogs feel secure in their owner's car, but some don't!
She might be noisy down there all alone. However we had exactly the same situation, our rescue was four when we got her. I went down a lot to sit with her and she got a lot more walks than she did at our home. She was not noisy, but her name was Whisper. It did work and we made many, many visits over the years. Our first visit was not Christmas. I think it being Christmas is tricky, so much commotion going on and the dog left out.
